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Impacts of religion on society
Impacts of religion on society
How has religion impacted history
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Tariq Ali uniquely puts into perspective the horrific tragedies behind the Spanish reconquest in his work, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, by capturing the history in the perspective of a Muslim family who lived in a village just outside of recently conquered Granada. He does this in order to expose the cruelty and intolerance of the Archbishop Xemenes de Cineros. Ali also uncovers the faults in not only Christianity, but also in Islamic ideology by having many character’s from the family Banu Hudayl debating and questioning Islamic beliefs which may parallel with the author’s own beliefs, or lack thereof. (Tariq) One of Ali’s strongest focuses however, was to expose the lack of urgency many Muslims felt after the fall of Granada. Many Muslim’s …show more content…
He uses the Banu Hudayl family to show that people of high status such as Zubayda have doubts of religion. Ali tries to diminish religion altogether by the many examples of fake conversions to Christianity which provides a sense that everyone has flaws, even the most devote Muslims. The fear which lead to the false conversion of many Muslims can directly correlate with the reasoning behind the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in 1609 under the rule of King Phillip III. Ali does not directly state this but hints at it throughout the novel by revealing many false converts and the tension that Cisneros feels towards these fake Christians. Ali also expresses his beliefs of equality through the many examples of sins and impurities among Muslims and Christians. Ali is trying to argue that we are all imperfect and selfish people, even if we have religion there will always be good and bad people. While there are many instances of noble sacrifice, such as Zuhayr going to fight for his family and for the town he loves, Hind points out that he only does this noble act out of …show more content…
I would counter this argument by saying that many of them would still have been scared into conversion which would in most cases have produced the same outcome for the Muslim people, especially involving the expulsion of them later in history. If Ali had been a Muslim rather than an atheist I believe this novel would have been more biased and lenient on the Muslim people, I am not sure that the argument of the Muslims living in the shadows would have been the same. Ali being an atheist provides an insight into the history that many other may not have considered to think about. This being said Ali’s main argument although may not have enough support to back it up completely was a fair one with many underlying
Al-Jabarti’s accounts were written with a criticism and tone that lacked very little neutrality. Clearly described is the questioning of Napoleon’s sincerity. They did not believe that a Christian could be a redeemer for Islam and distrusted him immensely. The disdain for Napoleon’s attempts to gain the trust and favor of the Is...
The Book of Contemplation written by Usama Ibn Munqidh is an interesting look at the relationship between the Latin Christian and Muslim cultures. Ibn Munqidh wrote this book to record the events taking place in the twelfth century; most of his anecdotes in sections throughout the book refer to the Latin Christians – or Franks – and the interactions between them and Muslims. Ibn Munqidh told of his curiosity into the matter of Franks on their first encounters with Muslim customs. He acknowledged the preconceived notions people had of the Franks during this time and wrote down these interactions Muslims had with them; this included conversations over medicine and intelligence. When Franks have lived in the Muslim community for a while, however, there is far more respect given to them by the Muslims.
Ibn Munqidh, Usama. "From Memoirs." McNeill, William and Marilyn Robinson Waldman. The Islamic World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. 184-206.
Islamic Spain can be seen as one of the only societies that has grasped the importance of synergy and placed this notion above the typical need for absolute control. It is here where adherents of three religions coexisted and thrived culturally, economically, and intellectually. Two works explain the history of Islamic Spain, one being a documentary by Gardner Films, Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain, and the other a book by Tamim Ansary called Destiny Disrupted: A History of The World Through Islamic Eyes. While both Ansary and Gardner Films explore the themes of Spain under Islamic rule, Gardner Films provides the viewer with a more thorough history of the region whereas Ansary remains brief and narrow with his narration. The documentary Cities of Light provides a view of Islamic Spain from its beginning to its very end. This documentary touches on every aspect of what life was like in Islamic Spain and the significance of the events that occurred there.
To initiate, Pérez’s thesis began by introducing the creation of the “anti-Semitism” against Jews; as well as discrimination against Muslims who opposed to the Catholic doctrine during the beginnings the Spanish Inquisition. First, Pérez criticized and analyzed the procedures and manipulations that the Inquisitions imposed to Jews and Muslims to convert them to Catholicism; these procedures and manipulations that Pérez criticized were the oppression to converted these two groups to Catholicism or expel them out from Spain if they remained their faith—many chose the exile (35). Also, Pérez admired the resistance that the majority of Jews had to preserve their faith in “secret” and maintained loyal to their faith even though they faced persecution, discrimination, oppression, and expulsion during the Inquisition (51).
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
In this paper I will discuss the print called Plum Garden at Kameido. This print was created by Ando Hiroshige in 1857. It is a woodblock print. In the front of the print is a close up of a tree. It is an image of a plum tree in a plum garden. The tree has pretty white blooms on it. For this reason it is logical to assume that it must be springtime. Working back, I see two more plum trees. None of the trees have much detail of the bark texture. I can see that if these trees are true to life, Plum trees are not very shapely trees. Behind the second row of trees is what appears to be an iron fence with people standing at various points along the fence. The fence line angles back to show a third row of trees in the distance. Green grass can be seen in much of the fenced in area highlighting the fact that it is a garden.
Joyce, James. “Araby.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Eighth Edition. Eds. Jerome Beaty, Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W.W.Norton.
The Islamic tradition, as reflected in Naguib Mahfouz’s Zaabalawi, has over the course of history had an incredible impact on Arab culture. In Mahfouz’s time, Islamic practices combined with their political relevance proved a source of both great power and woe in Middle Eastern countries. As alluded to in Zaabalawi, Mahfouz asserts the fact that not all Muslims attain religious fulfillment through this common tradition, and other methods outside the scope of Islam may be necessary in true spiritual understanding.
Art serves the purpose of transmitting ideas about our lives and environment - forcing people to think about different aspects of our lives. Artist Andy Goldsworthy has a very specific style, creating mostly temporary art using nature as both his materials and his setting. His works range from gold leaf covered rocks to a photo of him throwing a string of kelp into the sky for it to contort into some seemingly random shape. This paper, however, will discuss Goldsworthy 's work “Sycamore Leaves Edging the Roots of a Sycamore Tree” which shows the base of a tree lined with a yellow gradient fading into the ground made from the leaves of the very tree it surrounds. Through this work,
The book essentially begins with the year 711, when then thousand Moorish soldiers swiftly conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula, establishing Muslim rule over five million inhabitants and instituting a government that extended more or less equal
Joyce, James. "Araby." 1914. Literature and Ourselves. Henderson, Gloria, ed. Boston, Longman Press. 2009. 984-988.
The “Tales of Juha” are a collection of comic tales as well as some pieces that reveal information about social problems, religion in daily life, the link between religion and punishment and mortality. These pieces are important to read in order to understand what the daily life and culture of the Muslim empires was like according the citizens. These tales give a great inside look at some of the occurrence of a Muslim citizen.
In "Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum," Finbarr Barry Flood expresses many ideas concerning Islamic iconoclasm. His focus was on the ."..iconoclastic practices of Muslims living in the eastern Islamic world, especially Afghanistan and India." Flood discusses issues with traditional patterns considering Islamic iconoclasm and the "many paradoxes" that "complicate" our understanding of Islamic iconoclasm. Throughout this essay we become familiar with "essentialist conceptions of Muslim iconoclasm" as well as "political aspects of what has largely been conceived of as a theological impulse." These points later provide a basis for analyzing the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha by the Taliban in March 2001. "It will be argued that their obliteration indexed not a timeless response to figuration but a calculated engagement with a culturally specific discourse of images at a particular historical moment."
Although “Araby” is a fairly short story, author James Joyce does a remarkable job of discussing some very deep issues within it. On the surface it appears to be a story of a boy's trip to the market to get a gift for the girl he has a crush on. Yet deeper down it is about a lonely boy who makes a pilgrimage to an eastern-styled bazaar in hopes that it will somehow alleviate his miserable life. James Joyce’s uses the boy in “Araby” to expose a story of isolation and lack of control. These themes of alienation and control are ultimately linked because it will be seen that the source of the boy's emotional distance is his lack of control over his life.